Renukaswamy murder case: Supreme Court to consider plea against Karnataka HC's order on actor Darshan, others' bail on April 2

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday agreed to consider on April 2 a plea against the Karnataka High Court's order granting bail to Kannada actors Darshan Thoogudeepa, Pavithra Gowda, and others in the Renukaswamy murder case.

A bench of Justices J B Pardiwala and R Mahadevan gave the tentative date of hearing on an urgent mentioning made by advocate Anil C Nishani on behalf of the Karnataka government.

On January 24, the court had declined to stay the High Court's order but agreed to examine the Karnataka government's plea questioning its validity.

The court had then issued notice to Darshan and others on the state's plea against the Karnataka High Court's bail order, after hearing senior advocate Sidharth Luthra.

On January 6, 2025, the Karnataka government filed a petition in the Supreme Court challenging the bail granted to actor Darshan and 16 others in the sensational Renukaswamy murder case.

On December 13, 2024, the High Court granted bail to the accused.

Darshan, a 47-year-old Kannada actor, was arrested on June 11, 2024, in connection with the murder of 33-year-old Renukaswamy, a native of Chitradurga.

The victim’s body was discovered near a stormwater drain in Bengaluru on June 9.

According to the police, Renukaswamy had allegedly sent obscene messages to Darshan’s associate, Pavithra Gowda, which enraged the actor.

Police investigation led to the arrest of actor Darshan, his close friend Pavithra Gowda and 15 other associates.

The Bengaluru police also filed a chargesheet on September 3 naming Pavithra as accused number 1 and Darshan as the accused number 2. Police claimed that Renukaswamy's act of sending offensive messages to Pavithra was the motive of the offence.

The others named in the charge sheet were Pawan K (29); Raghavendra (43); Nandish (28); Jagadish (36); Anukumar (25); Ravi Shankar (32); Dhanraj D (27); Vinay V (38); Nagaraju (41); Laxman (54); Deepak (39); Pradosh (40); Karthik (27); Keshavamurthy (27), and Nikhil Nayak (21).

The actor was first granted interim bail on medical grounds on October 30, 2024. All the 17 accused are currently out on bail.